Page 2

Chapter

Two

Erin

T he drive through town is short.

Once we pull out of the gravel parking lot edging the woods, it’s a clear shot from one end of downtown to the other, the way peppered with old houses full of character.

Nothing is ever more than a few minutes away, which is something I both love and despise about being in a small town. The convenience is unmatched—no half hour to forty-five minute drives just to get groceries like the last place I lived—but being so close to everyone is a little suffocating.

Everybody knows everybody else, and if you have any secrets, the entire town is liable to know about them. It seems like the only thing they don’t gossip about are the monsters that hide in the woods.

They’d rather take that information to their graves.

Tyler grudgingly directs me straight to the Reese’s house, and I pull up in front of the curb at the end of a perfectly-kept yard. It’s a small, cabin-style home with colorful bushes beneath the front windows and a floral wreath welcome sign on the front door. The type of home you’d expect a nice, approachable couple to live in, which soothes my bubbling nerves enough for me to kill the engine and step out into a warm afternoon breeze.

“It’s nice,” I blurt out.

He’s back to the eye rolling. “What did you expect? Something like the Addams family?”

To be honest, I’m not sure what I expected.

As I head up the walkway to the front porch, Tyler follows quietly on my heels, the soles of his boots scuffling along the stone behind me. I pause on the welcome mat, trying to work out exactly what I’m going to say, but Tyler reaches around me and jams his thumb into the doorbell.

I glare at him as it echoes through the house, followed by the yipping of small dogs.

Sometimes, those kinds of pets are worse than anything you find in the woods at night or under the bed. Real life land sharks ready to nip at your ankles for breathing in their direction.

I reserve judgment.

“Coming,” a man’s voice calls seconds before the door opens a crack, and a pair of dark brown eyes peer out. When they meet mine, the glare in them eases, and the door opens wide enough for the man’s form to fill it. “Hi. Can I help you?”

“Are you Mr. Reese?” I ask, still working through how I plan to approach his son’s disappearance. I don’t want to risk him running us off the premises before I’ve even properly introduced myself.

“Yes. And you are?”

I clear my throat. “I’m Erin Roberts, owner of the Hooked on Spooks paranormal blog. I was wondering if I could ask you a couple of questions about the myths circulating the town and specifically how they connect to what happened to your son, Brandon.”

What I expect is a careful consideration of my interest and possible questions about the blog, but the way his face immediately darkens surprises me. His brows furrow together, and his mouth hardens into a thin line. “I’m not interested in answering questions.”

As he goes to shut the door in my face, I panic and reach for the knob. “Mr. Reese, please. Is there any comment you would make to a foreigner looking to travel to your town? Any words of advice? Places to stay away from this time of year?”

He hesitates for a brief second, just long enough to make me think he’s actually going to talk, before answering. “Yeah. Stay out of the fucking trees.”

And then the door slams closed in my face.

I stand there for a stunned second, wondering what the hell I’m supposed to do. I could knock again and make a better plight for information; insist that I’m trying to help the town with my research. But I deflate a few seconds later, my confidence disappearing. There’s no sense in getting the cops called on me for harassment, no matter how badly I want answers.

Damn it.

With a sigh, Tyler and I turn and head back to the car. He touches my elbow like he’s looking for permission to comfort me, and I shrug him off.

“Well, that was fucking useless,” I grumble.

He looks smug, his hands now shoved in his pockets and his chin uplifted. “I told—”

“Say it and you can walk home. I’m not kidding.” I cut him off and glare in his direction.

He falls silent, but I can still see the whisper of a smile on his lips. Yeah, coming here was a waste of time, just like he said it would be, but we had to try.

There are always more townspeople we could interview, although Tyler has told me everything he knows about the Grim lore. Maybe someone’s grandmother has seen something else? Heard something?

So far, I’ve been hesitant to pry only because the locals seem distrusting of an outsider.

It’s been hard to research on my own, and making friends outside of Tyler has been almost as impossible as finding the Grim.

If I can even call Tyler a friend… He’s more like a pain in the ass little brother who insists on tagging along constantly. At the very least, he’s proved to be useful once or twice.

I grumble, wracking my brain for an alternative plan and coming up empty. Any extra shred of information would be greatly appreciated as we go into the solstice with the vaguest idea of what will happen.

“We just have to wing it, I guess,” I say, my disappointment evident in the sigh that follows.

We climb into the car and I start the engine, staring blankly ahead at the dashboard as my mind spirals with unnerving thoughts.

It isn’t the first time I’ve dived headfirst into a situation with nothing more than a whisper of information, although the stakes weren’t very high in the past. A few haunted hotels with rumors of voices and footsteps. A graveyard where people saw lights and felt lightheaded, and an abandoned hospital where gurneys rolled down the hallways on their own. Nothing overtly dangerous, nothing evil.

Nothing like the terrifying stories plaguing the town of Great Oaks.

This will be a jackpot if I manage to capture irrefutable proof of the Grim’s existence.

A life-changing, destiny-altering jackpot.

“It’s not like you’re planning to be in the woods tomorrow night,” Tyler says, clicking his seatbelt into place and waiting for me to drive away. “We’ve got the cameras set up and we can watch them from your house. It’s going to be fine. Dark spooky forest adjacent.”

I chew the inside of my cheek, wondering if I should break the bad news to him now or when I drop him off at his house. I might not have said it out loud, but the woods are exactly where I plan to be when the sun goes down tomorrow. Either among the trees, or hiding along the tree line.

I’m not making the same mistake I did with Bigfoot.

If my cameras are able to catch anything, I plan to be close enough to see it with my own two eyes.

“Right,” I say, drawing out the word as I put the car in drive. “About that.”

“What about it?” His gaze burns a hole in the side of my face as we roll out of the tiny neighborhood. “Erin, please tell me you don’t plan to be outside when all this goes down. What are you planning? Answer me .”

“Of course I am, Tyler. How else am I going to see it firsthand?” I keep my eyes focused on the road and don’t bother glancing in his direction. “What if the cameras aren’t in the right spot? What if it takes someone and I can be there to stop it? There’s too much riding on this. There’s no way I’m staying home. We’re going to be much closer than adjacent.”

He groans. “Are you trying to get kidnapped? Is that what you want?”

“No.” That’s not on my to-do list at the moment.

Making my blog go viral? Yes.

Solving the mystery of the Grim? Yes.

Being kidnapped in the dead of night? Definitely not.

Without knowing many details of the mythology surrounding the Grim, we’re firing in the dark; lucky for me, I’m a professional. I know how to handle myself. Tyler? Not so much. Which is why I’ve told him several times to keep his distance, only for him to keep insisting on being there.

“You’re trying to kill me,” he mutters, rubbing his temples in my peripheral vision. “At least tell me you have a plan to stay out of sight. Not that it’ll do much good—the thing can probably smell you from a mile away.”

It depends on what the thing actually is.

“Uhhh…” Apparently my plan of hiding among some bushes isn’t good enough, and I already know by his attitude that he’ll shoot it down. “We can wait in the car. That way, if things get crazy, we can outrun it.”

He groans again.

“I told you that you could sit this one out if you’re scared,” I repeat with a shrug. “You’ll still be able to watch the live camera footage on the website, and I can text you updates if anything happens.”

Mental fingers crossed he takes my advice this time.

“And be called a coward for letting you do this shit alone? Nope. Not happening.” He crosses his arms again and slumps down in his seat, obviously annoyed. “You’re stuck with me, and whatever happens tomorrow night, happens.”

The corner of my mouth lifts in a half-hearted smile.

As serious as I was about doing this alone, I’m grateful for Tyler’s assistance. His company helps soothe some of the nerves eating at my insides like acid, and knowing I won’t be completely alone tomorrow night is comforting. It gives me the tiniest boost of courage and cements my resolve.

Whatever happened, he’s been a decent companion, even if he grates on my nerves sometimes.

I’m going to see this beast tomorrow night, one way or another, and it’s going to change everything. Life as I know it will never be the same, because I’m going to discover what thousands have been too afraid to chase after and what the world has never seen before.

I’m going to find the Grim .

And it doesn't matter what happens to me .